BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 11. KazMunayGas JSC (KMG, the national oil and gas company of Kazakhstan) has offered SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) to consider projects related to geological exploration in Kazakhstan, Magzum Mirzagaliyev, Chair of the Management Board of KMG, told Trend in an exclusive interview.
"KazMunayGas wants the relationship with SOCAR not to be limited to transportation issues and to include as much as possible the entire range of cooperation. Thus, we agreed that we are now studying the possible development of projects in the field of oil and production. In addition, we invited SOCAR to look at projects related to geological exploration in Kazakhstan," he said.
According to him, President of SOCAR was informed that on the instructions of President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the so-called Improved Model Contract (IMC) for subsoil use was legislatively adopted in 2023.
"Thanks to the IMC, the best conditions will be provided for investors who enter into geological exploration, as well as production in complex fields. That is, we continue to discuss and study the potential of joint projects," he said.
In 2022, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered to increase the volume of oil transportation along the Trans-Caspian corridor. Following this instruction, KazMunayGas and SOCAR entered into an agreement providing for the transportation of 1.5 million tons of oil per year from the Tengiz field in the direction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
In 2023, Kazakhstan transported 1.39 million tons of oil via the BTC, which is 5.5 times more than in 2022.
